System and method of embedding symbology in alphabetic letters and then linking the letters to a site or sites on the global computer network

ABSTRACT

A system and method of embedding symbology in alphabetic letters and then linking the letter to a site or sites on the global computer network, i.e., the Internet, are provided. The system and method provide for capturing an image of at least one character fixed in a medium; determining at least one letter of an alphabet corresponding to the at least one character; determining a numerical value for the determined at least one letter; looking up in a database a hyperlink corresponding to the numerical value; and presenting the hyperlink on a display device. The system and method further provide determining at least one marking within the at least one letter; and determining a location for the at least one marking within the at least one letter, wherein the combination of the at least one marking and the location for the at least one marking corresponds to the numerical value.

PRIORITY

The present application claims priority under the laws of the USincluding 35 USC 120 and is a continuation patent application of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/313,099 filed Dec. 7, 2011, the contentsof which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, which inturn is a continuation patent application of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/387,245 filed on Apr. 30, 2009, the contents of which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, which in turn claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Patent App. No. 61/126,398 filed on May 2,2008, the contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND

Field

A system and method is provided to allow a user to encode alphabetletters so that the letters will link a user to a site or sites on theGlobal Computer Network. By example, a user could give someone the wordChurchill and then the receiving user could decode the word Churchilland the decoding would lead the user to a specific website on WinstonChurchill.

Description of the Related Art

Alphabetic letters were invented a long time ago and form the basis forcommunication among humans. However, these letters do not allow a humanto decode for anything beyond words. The present object of thisdisclosure is to allow a user to decode the letters in a word to obtainthe word and also to allow a machine logic based system to decode theletter or letters in a word to obtain the address of a specific location(website) on the World Wide Web.

This decoding of letters will allow letters to thus have two or moremeanings, the first being the formation of a word and the second thelocation of digital information on and within the World Wide Web. As anexample, if the word Churchill were coded, the human mind would decodethe letters in this word to represent the entire word Churchill andperhaps that word would evoke various images in various human minds,including the image or memory of the former British Prime Minister. Inthe present disclosure, the word Churchill would not only decode to theword Churchill, but when the letters are read by a machine readableapplication, the machine would direct the user to a specific andpre-selected site on the Global Computer Network (web) that wouldcontain information on Mr. Winston Churchill.

SUMMARY

A system and method of embedding symbology in alphabetic letters andthen linking the letter to a site or sites on the global computernetwork, i.e., the Internet, are provided. The system and method providefor capturing an image of at least one character fixed in a medium;determining at least one letter of an alphabet corresponding to the atleast one character; determining a numerical value for the determined atleast one letter; looking up in a database a hyperlink corresponding tothe numerical value; and presenting the hyperlink on a display device.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, the system and methodfurther provide determining at least one marking within the at least oneletter; and determining a location for the at least one marking withinthe at least one letter, wherein the combination of the at least onemarking and the location for the at least one marking corresponds to thenumerical value.

In one aspect of the present disclosure, the image includes a pluralityof characters and the determining a numerical value further comprisessumming the numerical value for each of the plurality of characters.

In a further aspect, the at least one marking is a color.

In another aspect, the at least one marking is a hatch mark, at leastone dot, a line, a bolded element or a combination thereof.

In yet another aspect, the at least one character is a letter, a symbol,a syllabogram or logogram.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, the system andmethod provide for segmenting the at least one character into at leasttwo segments; and applying the at least one marking to at least one ofthe at least two segments at different locations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of the disclosurewill become more apparent in the light of the following detaileddescription when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is an overall flow diagram of a system for providing a hyperlinkon a network using symbology embedded in letters of an alphabet inaccordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 2 is an exemplary apparatus for providing a hyperlink on a networkusing symbology embedded in letters of an alphabet in accordance with anembodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method for providing a hyperlinkon a network using symbology embedded in letters of an alphabet; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of decoding a letter into a numericalvalue and using the numerical value as a lookup to determine acorresponding hyperlink in accordance with an embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Preferred embodiments of the disclosure will be described hereinbelowwith reference to the accompanying drawings. In the followingdescription, well-known functions or constructions are not described indetail to avoid obscuring the disclosure.

A system and method of embedding symbology in alphabetic letters andthen linking the letter to a site or sites on the global computernetwork, i.e., the Internet, are provided. A letter of an alphabet (notlimited by language, e.g., could be English, French, Russian, Chinese,etc.) is formed in a fashion that markings could be applied to theletter. The markings could be a hatch mark, a dot, a color indication, aline, a bolding, or any combination therein. These markings would beplaced at specific locations on the letter. By example, a hatch markcould be placed on the letter C in the middle of the letter and anothermark at the top of the letter.

A machine readable application such as Optical Character Recognition(OCR), or a photographic image of the letter, would record the letter indigital form. The letter would then be analyzed by computer processingpower to look for the marking in the letter and the specific location ofthe markings. This information would be sent to decoding softwaremodule. The combination of the physical location on the letter and themarking would allow the decoding module to decode each letter into aresultant numerical value by using an algorithmic decoding function.

By example, if the letter E has a marking on the top portion of theletter, that top portion of the marking would decode to a number. Inthis example, the location of the letter E could be premapped to 24locations that pixel by pixel define the location on the letter wherethe marking could be placed. The markings could be of various types, forinstance, a dot, a bold line, a half bold line, a full bold line, a linethat goes diagonal, a line that goes horizontal, a blue line, a redline, etc.

For every variation of the marking, a number would be defined. In thisexample, a full line would correspond to the number one and a half linemarking would correspond to the number 2. In this example (but this isnot meant to provide limitation), there could be 24 types of markings.Thus in the instant exemplar there would be 24²⁴ permutations ofpossible numerical values defining the letter E.

The decoding module software would now decode the letter to come up witha numerical value corresponding to that letter. This number would thenbe submitted via the Global Computer Network to a database that could beremotely located or locally located on the user's computer (databasessuch as Oracle or Microsoft SQL) and the database would use standardcomputer processing power and standard database algorithms to find whichprestored web location hyperlink corresponds to the submitted number.

Once the web location is determined and transmitted from the remote orlocal location of the user's local processor, then the user will bedirected to that location. In the instant example, the letter E woulddecode to the number 1,000,445, which would be sent to a local or remotedatabase. The transmission of this information could be through a mobiledevice or a desktop device. The transmission could be through Cellular,Satellite, Infrared, Bluetooth, Wan, Lan, Wifi, or any othercommunications channel now known or known in the future. The databasewould then look up 1,000,445 and find that it corresponds to theprestored website en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Winston_Churchill. The userwould then have access to that information at the website.

Note that this system and method disclosure applies to decoding theletters whether from a mobile device using standard OCR technology orimage recognition technology, or using desktop device(s) includingscanners, image recognition software, etc.

Please note that the above example represents one embodiment of thisdisclosure and that the final decoding of the alphabetic letters into anumber that corresponds to the resultant website could be accomplishedby decoding one or more alphabetic letters.

Referring to FIG. 1, a system for embedding symbology in alphabeticletters and then linking the letter to a site or sites on the globalcomputer network is illustrated. A substrate or medium 12 carries a word14 including at least one character. The at least one character may be aletter of any known alphabet. The substrate 12 may be a newspaper,advertisement at a point-of-sale, an exhibition display, etc. An imageof the at least one character is captured by a suitable device such as amobile terminal 16 (e.g., a mobile phone or personal digital assistant),a digital camera 18, a scanner 20 and sent to a server 100 over anetwork 20 either directly by the devices 16, 18, 20 or via a localcomputer 22. The server 100 determines a letter of an alphabetcorresponding to the at least one character by accessing a databasecontaining a plurality of alphabet databases. The server 100 thendetermines a numerical value for the determined letter.

The server 100 then uses the determined numerical value to lookup ahyperlink corresponding to the numerical value in a second database.Based on the numerical value determined from the letter, the server 100retrieves a hyperlink from the database and presents the hyperlink to auser on an appropriate display device, e.g., a computer monitor, amobile phone display, etc. The hyperlink may be a link to a web site, adocument stored on another server, etc.

Referring to FIG. 2, a server or apparatus 100 for embedding symbologyin alphabetic letters and then linking the letter to a site or sites onthe global computer network is illustrated. The system includes acomputer assembly 102 for embedding and decoding symbology in letterswith a computer processor 104. The computer assembly 102 will alsocontain a digital memory storage device or memory 106 that may be in theform of a removable or fixed hard disk device, or may be in the form ofwriteable memory, or may be in some other form hereto known or createdin the future. The computer assembly 102 will also includes a mediareader/writer 108 for reading from and writing to external storage media109. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the media reader 108is a optical reader/writer (OR) that will read and process variousoptical media including but not limited to DVDs, CDs, CD-ROMs, and othertypes of optical media that may be currently available or available inthe future. The optical reader/writer OR may also be able to write andstore digital data. In another embodiment, the media reader 108 is amemory card reader/writer (MCR). The memory card reader (MCR) will readvarious removable memory including but not limited to CompactFlash, SD(Secure Digital) memory, MultiMediaCard (MMC), Memory Stick, SmartMediaand other memory currently existing or created in the future. The memorycard reader (MCR) may also be able to write and store digital data.

The computer assembly 102 contains computer instructional code that isoperated by the computer processor 104. This code functions to create aembedding/linking module 110 for embedding the symbology into a letter,where the symbology equates to a numerical value, and then links thesymbology/numerical value to a hyperlink. The embedding/linking module110 includes an OCR module 112 for receiving an image containing the atleast one character and determining a letter of an alphabetcorresponding to the at least one character. The OCR module 112 performsa recognition algorithm or function on the character and accesses analphabet database 113 to determine the what the letter is and whatalphabet it is from. The embedding/linking module 110 furthers includesa decoding module 114 for analyzing the determined letter anddetermining a numerical value for the letter. As will be describes inmore detail below, the decoding module 114 receives the determinedletter and searches the letter for predetermined markings or patterns.Based on the markings or patterns, the decoding module 114 determines anumerical value for the letter. In one embodiment, the numerical valueis based not only on the markings or patterns in the letter but also onwhere the markings or patterns are located on the letter. For example,the same or identical markings may equate to different values dependingon where the markings are located on the letter.

It is further to be appreciated that the decoding module 114 candetermine a numerical value for a complete word including a plurality ofletters where each letter will have a value and the values for eachletter will be summed into a single numerical value.

The embedding/linking module 110 will also include a lookup module 116for receiving the determined numerical value and using the numericalvalue to lookup in a database 117 a corresponding hyperlink. Thenumber/hyperlink database 117 includes a plurality of recordsassociating a numerical value to a predetermined hyperlink, which whenactivated will direct a user to a variety of content. It is to beappreciated that the linked content may be any currently availablecontent including but not limited to an audio file, video file,multimedia file, application file, web site or web page or any contentto be developed in the future.

It is to be understood that the present disclosure may be implemented invarious forms of hardware, software, firmware, special purposeprocessors, or a combination thereof. In one embodiment, the presentdisclosure may be implemented in software as an application programtangibly embodied on a program storage device. The application programmay be uploaded to, and executed by a machine, e.g., computer assembly102, comprising any suitable architecture such as a personal computer, aworkstation or server. Preferably, the computer assembly 102 isimplemented on a computer platform having hardware such as one or morecentral processing units (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), a readonly memory (ROM) and input/output (I/O) interface(s) 120 such as akeyboard 122, cursor control device 124 (e.g., a mouse or joystick) anddisplay device 126, e.g., a monitor. A system bus 128 couples thevarious components and may be any of several types of bus structuresincluding a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and alocal bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. The computerplatform also includes an operating system and micro instruction code.The various processes and functions described herein may either be partof the micro instruction code or part of the application program (or acombination thereof) which is executed via the operating system.

In addition, various other peripheral devices may be connected to thecomputer platform of the machine by various interfaces and busstructures, such a parallel port, serial port or universal serial bus(USB). One such peripheral device may include a communication module118, e.g., a modem, satellite relay, wireless connection, etc., forenabling communications from the computer assembly 102 to variousservers. Other peripheral devices may include additional storagedevices, a printer and a scanner.

It is to be further understood that, because some of the constituentsystem components and method steps depicted in the accompanying figuresmay be implemented in software, the actual connections between thesystem components (or the process steps) may differ depending upon themanner in which the present disclosure is programmed. Given theteachings of the present disclosure provided herein, one of ordinaryskill in the related art will be able to contemplate these and similarimplementations or configurations of the present disclosure.

The computer assembly 102 may operate in a networked environment usinglogical connections to one or more remote computers, e.g., server26,28,30. The remote computer may be a personal computer, a server, arouter, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, andtypically includes many or all of the elements described above relativeto the machine. It is to be appreciated that the network 20 may be alocal area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the Internet or anyknown network that couples a plurality of computers to enable variousmodes of communication via network messages. The computer assembly 102may communicate to the server 26,28,30 and network 20 via any knowncommunication link 24, for example, dial-up, hardwired, cable, DSL,satellite, cellular, PCS, wireless transmission (e.g., 802.11a/b/g,etc.), etc. Furthermore, the devices will communicate using the variousknown protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol(TCP/IP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol(HTTP), etc. During a purchasing transaction, the computing devices mayemploy Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPs), Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) Protocol, Secure Electronic Transaction (SEC) Protocol, etc.

With reference to FIGURES, a method of the present disclosure will nowbe described, where FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating a method forproviding a hyperlink on a network using symbology embedded in lettersof an alphabet and FIG. 4 illustrates an example of decoding a letterinto a numerical value and using the numerical value as a lookup todetermine a corresponding hyperlink.

Initially, in step 202, an image of at least one character fixed in amedium is captured via any one of a known plurality of devices. In theexample shown in FIG. 4, the word “Churchill” 302 is captured. As can beseen in FIG. 4, only the character or letter “C” 304 has markingsapplied to it. For simplicity, the following discussion will referenceonly one letter with markings or patterns applied to it. However, it isto be appreciated that each letter of the word may include markingsand/or patterns applied to it.

The image 302 can be captured by a mobile phone 16 with a camera, adigital camera 18 where the image can be transferred to a user localcomputer, a scanner 19 where a user scans another image or papercontaining the word or by any known or to be developed capture device.The image 302 is then transferred to server 100. In one embodiment, themobile device 16 will transfer the image 302 from that device to thenetwork 20 and subsequently the server 100. In other embodiments, theimage 302 will be transferred to a user's local computer 22 and then tothe server 100 via intermediary server 102 such as an Internet ServiceProvider (ISP) 102.

The server 100 receives the image 302 via the communication module 118and transmits the image to the OCR module 112. The OCR module 112determines a letter of an alphabet corresponding to the character 304(step 204). The OCR module 112 accesses an alphabet database 113including a plurality of different alphabets to find the closest matchto the character and determine the corresponding letter.

Once the letter is determined, the determined letter is transmitted tothe decoding module 114 to determine a numerical value for the letter(step 206). The decoding module 114 analyzes the letter to determine ifany markings or patterns exist on within the letter. A single particularmarking in the letter will equate to a particular numerical value. Inone embodiment, the numerical value of the marking will also depend onits location within the letter. Referring to the example of FIG. 4, theletter “C” includes a first portion 306, a second portion 308 and athird portion 310. Each portion includes different markings which equateto a different numerical value. For example, the first portion 306includes hatching which equates to a value of 1,000,000. The secondportion 308 includes dots which equates to a value of 45,000. The thirdportion 310 includes no markings which equates to a value of 35. Thetotal numerical value of the letter “C” 304 is 1,045,035. It is to beappreciated that if the second portion 308 included hatching it wouldequate to a value other than 1,000,000 because of it location, forexample, 55,000.

The total numerical value (in this example 1,045,035) is then employedto lookup a hyperlink in database 117 corresponding to the numericalvalue (step 208). The number/hyperlink database 117 includes a pluralityof records with each record including a numerical value field 312 and acorresponding hyperlink field 314. In the example of FIG. 4, thenumerical value, i.e., 1,045,035, is employed by the lookup module 116to retrieve hyperlink #4.

The retrieved hyperlink is then presented to the user on an appropriatedisplay device (step 210). For example, if the image 302 is transmittedby a mobile phone 16, the hyperlink is displayed on a screen or displayof the mobile phone. In another example, if the image 302 is transmittedfrom the user's local computer 24, the hyperlink is presented on amonitor of the computer. In one embodiment, the hyperlink isautomatically activated and the resultant content is presented to theuser. For example, if the hyperlink is to a web site, the correspondingweb site will be presented to the user. In another example, if thehyperlink is linked to a pdf file, the pdf file will be presented.

One of the features of the present disclosure is that the letters can befrom any language such as English, Chinese, Russian, etc. and can be anyfrom any known or to be developed alphabet such as Latin, Greek,Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, etc. Furthermore, the character can be asymbol, a syllabogram (i.e., an element which denotes a syllable), alogogram (an element which denotes a word or phrase) or the like.

Furthermore, a hardware device may be employed to scan an alphabeticletter and obtain a numerical value from that letter, and the hardwaredevice may be a mobile device. In this embodiment, the hardware devicewill only transmit the numerical value and not the entire image. Thus,the subject system and method may employ a mobile device fortransmitting the numerical code decoded from the alphabetic letters to aremote server. Also, the subject invention may include the feature oflooking up the numerical code that has been transmitted and thenassociating that code with a site or sites on the Global ComputerNetwork.

Another feature is that the decoded letters may be made by color, or bymarkings including dots, lines, and/or other marking types such asplacing marking in different directions within the letter (i.e.,horizontal or vertical).

In the subject system and method, mapping alphabetic letters andassigning a valuation to each selected location on the alphabetic letteris followed by marking the letter at any selected location or amultitude of locations.

Another feature is decoding the value of the alphabetic letter by takingthe value of the letter at the individual point where the letter ismarked and then the value assigned to the individual marking at theselected point the letter is marked and by taking the first value andusing it as the base integer value and the second value and using it asthe exponential power (e.g. 100 to the 83^(rd) power or 100⁸³) and thenderiving a value from that algorithm.

Still another feature of the present disclosure is decoding the value ofthe alphabetic letter by taking the value assigned to the individualmarking at the selected point the letter is marked and then the assignedvalue at the individual point where the letter is marked and by takingthe first value and using it as the base integer value and the secondvalue and using it as the exponential power (e.g., 83 to the 100^(th)power or 83¹⁰⁰) and then deriving a value from that algorithm.

The present disclosure also provides for applying the markings to theletters or characters. In one embodiment, the system and method providesfor segmenting the at least one character into at least two segments andapplying the at least one marking to at least one of the at least twosegments at different locations.

While this disclosure has been shown and described with reference tocertain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of disclosure of theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for improving functionality of machine-based image processing and decoding for providing a hyperlink on a network, the method comprising: capturing an image of at least one visible character fixed in a medium; determining a letter of an alphabet corresponding to the at least one visible character; identifying, within the captured image, at least one symbology applied within the determined letter, wherein the at least one symbology forms a visible portion of the at least one visible character; determining a type of the identified at least one symbology and a location for the identified at least one symbology within the letter; determining a numerical value for the identified at least one symbology based on the determined letter, determined type of the at least one symbology and location of the identified at least one symbology within the determined letter; looking up in a database a hyperlink corresponding to the numerical value; and presenting the hyperlink on a display device.
 2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the image includes a plurality of characters and the determining a numerical value further comprises summing the numerical value for each of the plurality of characters.
 3. The method as in claim 1, further comprising activating the hyperlink and displaying a web site on the display device.
 4. The method as in claim 1, wherein the at least one symbology is a color.
 5. The method as in claim 1, wherein the at least one symbology is a hatch mark, at least one dot, a line, a bolded element or a combination thereof.
 6. The method as in claim 1, further comprising: segmenting the at least one visible character into at least two segments; and applying the at least one symbology to at least one of the at least two segments at different locations.
 7. The method as in claim 1, wherein the at least one visible character is a letter, a symbol, a syllabogram or logogram.
 8. The method as in claim 1, wherein the identifying step further includes: segmenting the at least one visible character into at least two segments; and determining a symbology in each of the at least two segments.
 9. The method as in claim 8, wherein the determining the numerical value further comprises summing the numerical values determined for the symbology s in each of the at least two segments.
 10. The method as in claim 1, wherein the at least one symbology and the at least one visible character are fixed in the same medium.
 11. An apparatus for improving functionality of machine-based image processing and decoding for providing a hyperlink on a network comprising: a communication link that receives a transmitted image of at least one visible character fixed in a medium; a processor coupled to a memory for storing a control program, the control program renders the apparatus to function as: a first module for determining at least one letter of an alphabet corresponding to the at least one visible character and identifying, within the transmitted image, at least one symbology applied within the letter, wherein the at least one symbology forms a visible portion of the at least one visible character; a decoding module for determining a type of the identified at least one symbology and a location for the identified at least one symbology within the letter and determining a numerical value for the identified at least one symbology based on the determined letter, determined type of the at least one symbology and location of the identified at least one symbology within the determined letter; and a lookup module for looking up in a database a hyperlink corresponding to the numerical value and presenting the hyperlink on a display device.
 12. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the image includes a plurality of characters and the decoding module sums the numerical value for each of the plurality of characters.
 13. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the lookup module is further adapted for activating the hyperlink and displaying a web site on the display device.
 14. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the at least one symbology is a color.
 15. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the at least one symbology is a hatch mark, at least one dot, a line, a bolded element or a combination thereof.
 16. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the decoding module is further adapted for: segmenting the at least one visible character into at least two segments; and applying the at least one symbology to at least one of the at least two segments at different locations.
 17. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the at least one visible character is a letter, a symbol, a syllabogram or logogram.
 18. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the decoding module is further adapted for segmenting the at least one visible character into at least two segments and determining a symbology in each of the at least two segments.
 19. The apparatus as in claim 18, wherein the decoding module is further adapted for summing the numerical values determined for the symbology s in each of the at least two segments.
 20. The apparatus as in claim 11, wherein the at least one symbology and the at least one visible character are fixed in the same medium.
 21. A system for improving functionality of machine-based image processing and decoding to provide a hyperlink over a network comprising: a first mobile device for capturing an image of at least one visible character fixed in a medium, the first mobile device including a first communication link for transmitting over a network the captured image to a server; and the server comprising: a second communication link for receiving the captured image; a processor coupled to a memory for storing a control program, the control program renders the system to function as: a first module for determining at least one letter of an alphabet corresponding to the at least one visible character and identifying, within the received image, at least one symbology applied within the letter, wherein the at least one symbology forms a visible portion of the at least one visible character; a decoding module for determining a type of the identified at least one symbology and a location for the identified at least one symbology within the letter and determining a numerical value for the identified at least one symbology based on the determined letter, determined type of the at least one symbology and location of the identified at least one symbology within the determined letter; and a lookup module for looking up in a database a hyperlink corresponding to the numerical value, wherein the second communication link of the server transmits the hyperlink to the first mobile device; whereby the system determines both the at least one letter and the hyperlink from the captured image of the at least one visible character.
 22. The system as in claim 21, wherein the first mobile device is a personal digital assistant.
 23. The system as in claim 21, wherein the first mobile device is a mobile phone.
 24. The system as in claim 21, wherein the first mobile device is a personal computer.
 25. The system as in claim 21, wherein the at least one symbology and the at least one visible character are fixed in the same medium. 